Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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995. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the actions being taken to train teaching staff, including SNAs, on how to support children with visual impairments; and the training available for specialised equipment such as Braille textbooks under the child vision reading services. [20589/25]

Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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999. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if training is provided to teaching staff on specialised equipment, including Braille equipment and the Braille keyboard. [20593/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 995 and 999 together.

This government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs to fulfil their full potential and the Programme for Government makes a number of commitments to deliver on this objective. The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has responsibility for coordinating and advising on the education provision for children with special educational needs.

The NCSE offers full school support to all staff and provides support for teachers and special needs assistants (SNA) with training needs in special education, through the NCSE support service which manages, co-ordinates and develops a range of supports in response to identified teacher training need. Schools can apply to the NCSE for training supports directly.

To offer longitudinal support to children who are deaf, hard of hearing or blind or visually impaired, the visiting teaching service under the NCSE is available. This service provides qualified teachers, who have particular skills and knowledge of the development and education of children with varying degrees of hearing loss/visual impairment to support the child, the school and parents.

The work of the visiting teacher (VT) involves liaising with other professionals and agencies such as ophthalmology services, low vision specialists, psychologists, early intervention teams, school staffs, and with parents. VTs provide support in the development of pre-braille skills and mobility for children with visual impairment and they discuss and demonstrate the management of low vision aids and assistive technologies. Many of the VTs are proficient in the teaching of Braille and the NCSE also has an induction programme in place for new VTs to learn Braille and to upskill in this area.

My department and the NCSE are committed to delivering an education system that is of the highest quality and where every child and young person feels valued and is actively supported and nurtured to reach their full potential.